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Despite subpoena, Corker won't attend hearing over VW vote

By G. Chambers Williams III
10:13 a.m. CDT April 17, 2014

Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., says he will not testify at a federal labor hearing next week over the failed UAW vote at VW’s Chattanooga plant in February. The UAW claims Corker and other lawmakers “interfered” with the vote.
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"Everyone understands that after a clear defeat, the UAW is trying to create a sideshow, so we have filed a motion to revoke these baseless subpoenas," said Todd Womack, Corker's chief of staff. "Neither Sen. Corker nor his staff will attend the hearing on Monday."

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and state Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bill Hagerty's offices said Wednesday that the two Republican state officials had not scheduled an appearance at the hearing, but they did not explicitly rule it out.

"It is an ongoing legal matter and we're currently taking a look at the next steps," Haslam spokeswoman Laura Herzog said.

A spokeswoman for the state Attorney General's Office said the subpoenas were still being studied, and that no advice had yet been given to the Haslam administration as to whether the officials could be compelled to attend the hearing and testify in the case.

After the February vote, the UAW challenged the outcome of the vote, citing the alleged "outside infererence" by the Republican elected officials,. and asked the National Labor Relations Board to overturn the results and order a new election.

Meanwhile, Democrats in the U.S. House on Wednesday opened their own "inquiry" into whether Haslam's administration might have violated federal labor law by attempting to tie state incentives for expansion of the Chattanooga VW plant to the outcome of the election over representation by the UAW, which the union has alleged.